As apart of the Discovery Unsung Hero Project, I researched my Great Grandmother and role-model, Harriett Jenkins. I reasearch my mom and my Grandfather(her son) to provide interviews about who she was. I am very proud of this website, and I hope that you can visit the page and comment what you think about it. The link to the website is https://harriettjenkins.weebly.com/

Harriett Jenkins: Process Paper When the Discovery Unsung Hero website was first brought to me in class, I had no idea what to do. Being a theater student, I automatically wanted to do a narrative film. Knowing what I wanted to do, I thought about who I wanted to be my Unsung hero for weeks, ideas bouncing all the way from Amy Garvy, to Corretta King. All were beautiful Unsung heros, but none of them grabbed me. One day I was talking to my mom about our Grandmother and it hit me, my great Grandmother Harriett Jenkins deserves so much more recognition, and with her passing still being fresh in my mind, I knew that making anything for her would be a great way to heal and show the world who she was. When I started researching her, I realized that a narrative film wasn’t the route I wanted to go at all. There were some articles on her, but in my opinion, not enough. I knew that I needed to make a website on her that would forever be on the internet but there were barely any primary sources. So, I had to go to the people closest to her, her son Brian Wood and her granddaughter Mandisa Wood. In the interview, Brian had a lot of insight on her teaching career and gave me most of my information surrounding her childhood and her degrees, but Mandisa really talked about Harriett's genealogy and her family tree since she has a knack for tracing back the family lineage. As I mentioned before, making a narrative film wasn’t really the way I wanted to share Harriet’s memory. I felt like films are watched and forgotten, but websites are visited regularly. So I set out to making a website, which was easy enough once I figured out how I was going to make it. The hard part was building and trying to figure out my theme. I had no idea what I wanted it to be, but I knew that I wanted to make it in a way that preserved Harriet’s memory in a positive way. When I was researching, I found so many articles about what she did in NASA, and how she changed it in so many ways and I knew that that was the way I wanted to go. My thesis: Harriett Jenkins sent the first African American into space, worked constantly with integrating NASA and Congress and ultimately changed NASA and its employees forever... After hearing so much about my grandmother interviewing astronauts and integrating NASA I knew that those were the two key points i needed in my thesis because of how important they are. I needed to show in my thesis that she left her mark on this world and her handprint will be here forever, and her legacy teaches young black girls everywhere that if she could do it, we can to. All we have to do is try. ​

In my American Studies class, I was personally tasked with writing an essay on how women and minorities were treated during the 1940's. In this essay, I included both an annotated bibliography at the end containing my sources, and also footnotes at the bottom contain my references. Here I will post my essay, feel free to comment on it and learn more about how World War 2 made a different environment for women and minorities. Here is the link .

World War 2 Argumentative Essay: Women and Minorities during the 1940’In 1941, when Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan, America began contributing to the second World War, the biggest one seen to date. Everything changed after the Japanese attacked Pearl harbor; where food started to be rationed, 16 million men enlisted in the military, and industrial manufacturers started producing more and more for their troops creating more jobs.1 Luckily, with the opening of job positions, over 6 million women signed on for manufacturing jobs just within the first month.1 Although this helped get America through the war and ultimately changed history forever, how were women and minorities treated during and after WW2?

In History At a Glance: Women in World War II,2 the website points out how women started working jobs that they had never worked before, and their whole position changed. Women were no longer staying at home, cleaning the house and taking care of the children like they were before the war, they were taking care of their fathers, husbands, and brothers by taking all the jobs left over to help make and send supplies back to their troops. Quoting the website;“Some women served near the front lines in the Army Nurse Corps, where 16 were killed as a result of direct enemy fire. Sixty-eight American service women were captured as POWs in the Philippines. More than 1,600 nurses were decorated for bravery under fire and meritorious service, and 565 WACs in the Pacific Theater won combat decorations.2”

Even after the war the racism and sexism continued, the industry started pushing women out of their work since the white men were coming home to take their jobs back2. All the while coming back to a still racist America that just barely allowed for minorities to work in segregated parts of the military.3After President Roosevelt signed the bill that forced for employers during the war to start hiring African Americans, more and more people of color started working for the war, but that doesn’t mean that they always got the jobs they wanted or even deserved like their white coworkers. 3“Defense industries proved to be a critical battleground in the struggle for a victory for civil rights at home. As preparations for war accelerated in early 1941, minority groups hoped they would benefit as much as the rest of the country from the new jobs in military production. But black workers were often shut out of defense plants, and when they could find work, it was often in the most menial, dangerous, and low-paying jobs. One aviation executive stated, “While we are in complete sympathy with the Negro, it is against company policy to employ them as aircraft workers or mechanics… regardless of their training.” The Standard Steel Company declared, “We have not had a Negro worker in twenty-five years, and we do not plan to start now.”3”

Even at work African Americans were discriminated against, both at home and at work. In another quote from the book A Democracy at War by William L. O'Neil, he explain more about what African Americans were experiencing in the war;“In addition to suffering from reluctant commanders, segregation, and discrimination, Negro soldiers often were victims of violence, especially in the South, scores being killed or wounded during the war. Often these casualties resulted from fights between black soldiers and white soldiers and civilians, but even minor violations of local racial codes were punishable by death.”6

Back on the home front, the latino community was also being terrorized in their own backyard. In los Angeles, racial tensions reigned supreme for that time, causing many fights between white sailors and latinos.3 “Violence erupted in the Latino community also. The most notorious incident was the “zoot-suit riots” in Los Angeles in the spring of 1943. Tensions had been high in Los Angeles in the wake of isolated, violent confrontations between Anglo sailors on leave and Mexican-American “zoot-suitors” — hip, young teens dressed in baggy pants and long-tailed coats. Then, for ten nights in June, sailors cruised Mexican-American neighborhoods and ruthlessly attacked anyone wearing a zoot suit, tearing the clothes off their bodies and viciously beating them. Some Latino youth fought back, and when the violence ended, many Mexican Americans and Anglo servicemen were in hospital beds, and bitter resentment lingered for years.3”

Both women and minorities were discriminated against even after they contributed their lives to America for the war. Even after all their help, everything went back to the way it was as if America didn’t need women and minorities to win the war at all. “When Black, Hispanic, and Native American soldiers returned they found a country that still did not grant them full rights, but a movement for the expansion of civil rights had been born. Some black soldiers who had left farm jobs in the South decided not to return home. Instead, they moved to cities, looking for work that was similar to what they had learned in the armed forces. This movement represented an intensification of the black migration that began around the turn of the century.” 5

Let us not forget the Japanese Americans who were forced into internment camps because of American fear which was influenced by racism. American citizens were forced into internment camps because they were supposedly capable of espionage; but with later research, it was found that not one Japanese American was actually involved in the bombing of Pearl Harbor or a spy of any kind.1 Let’s also remember that Native Americans were code-talkers in WW2 and even created a whole new language for Americans to gain an extra footer in the war. How were they repaid? With racist movies about their culture mocking “The Indian Maidan”.4

America isn’t known for treating it’s minorities well. It’s history is full of hatred, selfishness, and racism that was embedded in its original constitution within its origin and never fully went away. This brings me to my thesis; Although minorities were a crucial part to America winning WW2, after the war ended minorities were discriminated against in the same way both during the war and after. Although the 1940’s were a long time ago we should really be looking at our history as a sign of what America is capable of. Although America has been known to be especially ruthless to its women and minorities, we as American people need to look at our accomplishments and realize they aren’t enough. America has accomplished a lot, but it can do so much more .

Annotated Bibliography

History: American Women in WWll Evaluating this source, I do believe it helps me with my topic and that the source is credible. The website relates all of its content to History, and all of my other sources backup the information. Information is added regularly and the last copyright date of the website was 2018 so I would say that it is up to date. There is no author mentioned, but the website is a company that takes ownership of all the articles. Since it is a company, the website does seem to keep their website and information very presentable, all while continuing to provide good information with a modern day bias, meaning they aren't sexist which I appreciate. The site talks about why women started working during WW2 and even provides videos to further explain in detail. The source talks about how in 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bomb, many men went to war leaving their wives to occupy their spaces in their industrial jobs. The site talks about women in a general sense, instead of just zeroing in on one minority. It shows that women took over and started working, and even started advertising women working with the Rosie the Riveter ad, causing a lot of women to come to show support for their troops. Although, sexism in the workplace was an issue, women helped hold down america during this time, bringing aid to their troops and taking care of their families at the same time. In my essay, I talked about how women were discriminated against before, during, and after the second world war. This website gave me most of my insight on how they were treated during the war, which helped me configure the basis of my essay. The video in the website especially helped me grasp the information I was trying to learn and taught me from a different perspective. In my essay I talked a lot about how sexist men were to women, trying to tell them that they were too dumb to do certain jobs or not bright enough to figure out a machine. I also talked about how women proved them wrong and did it anyway while helping their country.

The National WWll Museum story at a Glance: Women in World War ll In this source, the website is run by another corporation. Although this one is a lot more well known than the last one, this website is a .org and is connected to a WW2 museum in New Orleans. Their contact information is available at the bottom of the website, and it is a real email address and phone number. They even have social media accounts to promote their website and museum for publicity. The have an entire page dedicated to their privacy policy and all of the information is relevant to my essay and doesn't contradict with any of my other sources. What I like about this website is that there is a definite bias and the website makes sure to announce that the museum gives full recognition to the "contribution that women played in the success of the Allied victory in World War II". The Museum sources itself, since it is a museum, and it does contain links at the very end of the site that leads to an exhibit from the museum that explains how they got this information. The site is about how women took over the industrial business after men had to go fight in the war. Like the other website, it also explains why women had to fill those positions and what made the U.S go into the war. It also explains the jobs women took and how they stood united during the war. One thing that's different with this website is it talks about all the many jobs that women filled during the war. It also explained what happened to the women's jobs after the men came back from the war and how all the progress that was made was somehow forgotten once the men got back. In my essay, I used a long quote from this website to describe what happened to women on the battlefield. Many don't know that women died on the front as well so I wanted to include that in my essay. I used this website to further fuel my knowledge of the jobs that women had on the battlefield and at home, while learning about what happened to women afterwards which really helped me understand and is mostly the basis of my argument. The website helped me mostly with how women were treated when the men got back from war, but still helped me a lot in the long run.

Washington, DC and American Lives II Film Project. The War at Home This source gave me a lot of valuable information that I didn't know. After looking at four sources so far, I had not seen one that could give me this much information on the struggles of both the African American community and the Latin American Community. The site included a the publishing and copyright information at the bottom of the web page as well as the date of copyright. All of the information makes sense and this website seems to be the most unbiased website I have seen yet. The page is also the website for PBS (a well known channel used to inform the public) and it’s a .org website. Basically, the source begins by talking about the African American struggle during WW2. They talk about how African Americans were still segregated against even when WW2 began. Unlike other websites, they make the statement that the treatment of African Americans did not change during the War at all. They also touched basis with the treatment of Latin Americans in the War. This is helpful because most of my sources so far are either explain the treatment of women or African Americans. For my essay, I think this might be my main source (besides my book). I'm using two sources from this website. One to explain the struggles of African Americans during the War with it still being segregated. I'm using the other to explain the experience of Latino Americans during the War and even after.

"Post World War II: 1946-1970." Women and Work. This website was created by pro women's rights organization so naturally it's biased. The Organization is called Striking Women Women and Work. The website contains a glossary and reference page and the content isn't contradicting in anyway. This site talk about women's struggles after the war, and how their rights changes decades later. The website has over 20 sources and references available on its page, and the sources don't contradict the page either. This website is about what women did after the war. Unlike past sites that I've looked at, the authors talked about women's struggles during the war and how they were still fighting for women's rights even after they contributed so much during the war. I already know what women did during the war to help so it’s helpful to find a website that explains later accomplishments that shaped the world today. This website basically talks about how women were treated from 1946 on. This website provided me with a lot of useful information. For my essay, I used this to help the conclusion of my essay mostly. It's a good transition from the sexism that women faced to the rights that they do eventually get. It's good to mention that they do get a happy ending although the struggle for the rights was wrong and hard (it still is).

Williams, Anna. "The “Indian Maiden”." THE ROLES OF NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN: TRIBAL SOCIETY VERSUS AMERICAN SOCIETY Compared to my other sources, this website has a lot more to evaluate on. The authors name is listed in this one, as well as the publishing date. It was published only in 2014, so it's pretty new still and the information doesn't contradict at all. The author seems to be bias towards cultural appropriation, as they mentioned that Europeans have been known to use and abuse Native American culture. The entire website has four full resources that are in fact cited and it includes pictures. Basically, the whole article talked about cultural appropriation regarding the Native American culture. It goes back all the way to World war 2 and explains why the film industry exploded. The author focuses mostly on what the industry exploded into, explaining how the fetishizing of Native American culture began. This evolved into the "Indian Maiden" which influences even the culture of today's America. I am going to use this website to site when I talk about how the treatment of Native Americans still hasn't change to this day let alone after WW2. This websites information contains just information about Native Americans which is the only source I have including them. So, I will be using this source mostly in my body paragraphs to explain the cultural appropriation and racism that still occurs today. This will help me draw in my paper to include all minorities.

Reinhardt, Claudia, and Bill Ganzel. "Civil Rights for minorities." Wessels Living History Farm. This website was written on a website for a History Farm from York, Nebraska. It was written by two authors whose names are mentioned and there is also a bibliography attached for sources.There is also a contact page located on one of the last tabs of the website. The information helps me a lot because I am learning more about minorities instead of just women. All of the information makes sense, and the sources seem to check out as well. The authors seem to have a bias (of course) but its not as strong as past sites that I've looked at. This site talks about how minorities were fighting in WW2 despite popular opinion of only white men fighting. The website focuses mostly on the struggles of African American men while lightly touching upon the topic of other minorities. The site explains what happened both during the war and after, showing the type of racism that happened and how it barely changed. I learned that after the war African Americans still lived in a segregated America, but luckily many of them left to use their newly learned crafts. I used a quote from this website to explain how minorities were treated both during and after the war. The whole website has many other points that I also read through to learn and add to my final conclusion paragraph.The whole website was a great source because it’s the only source I have that talks so in depth about the struggles of black people during that time. It also mentions many other ethnicities which helped me understand the struggle that all minorities went through.

O'Neill, William L. A Democracy at War: America's Fight at Home and Abroad in World War II. N.p.: arrangement with the Free Press, a Division of Macmillan, Inc., 1995. Since this is a book and not a website, I will be evaluating it a little differently, while still using the cars sheet. The author seems very credible as they use dozens of sources in the bibliography and the book is sponsored by Harvard. The author has a page dedicated to publication and copyright as well. The author does seem bias, as everyone is, but again the bias is in a way the my research essay is leaning towards anyways. I looked at one of the sources on the book and it was another book that seemed reliable itself. This book is actually a really interesting book that I'm glad I've found. The information actually pulls me in and that's surprising considering I don't read a lot of non-fictional books willingly. The book basically explains how America has changed through the years and how Democracy has been threatened through each year. The part I'm most interested in is when the author explains minorities and how they were treating in the 1940's. This explanation is brought with resources and knowledge that I can't get online. I'm going to use this book to mainly site my sources throughout the paper. This book and one other website are going to be my main sources. This means that I will use them through my paper to use in a footnote or even quote. So far I don't know if I am going to quote the book yet since I already have so many.

The last post I made, me and my team were developing the song "What's this" and making it fit into our play of "The Cat, Cock, and the Young Mouse" Over time we have developed a way to incorporate the song into our play, and were able to also perform that as well. Here is the script to the play that I made with my team members. We all collaborated in making it and performing it, and my part in it was as the main character, a young mouse.Here is the document version, if you are unable to read it here.

RachelThere once lived a young mouse and her mother who had just moved away from their quiet life in a field to a new life that was more like the busy life of a farm. Once the young mouse finished helping her mom unpacking, she wanted to go explore. Reading with a book in her hands to the side

Paloma Hey mom? Is it alright if I go exploring? I finished unpacking and I am so excited to see what is out there!Really excited, as though you want nothing else.

Nicole Oh, Uh, well Dear, I haven't had time to u-unpack all of my things yet. And I haven't had time to-to scout the area t-to make sure its, its safe. B-But if you promise to, promise to be careful, and safe, I might let you go

Paloma Of course I will be careful mom! When have I ever gotten into trouble? Rolls her eyes

Nicole I-I know. I trust you. Just-just be careful. Ya-You remember what I have told you about the dangers out there? Oh, well let me remind you anyway. Make sure you stay away from lawn mowers, because they will chop you to pieces and-and there's blood everywhere and and broken bones. Beware of that. Then, uh, make sure you stay away from sprinklers, because those shoot water everywhere and you get wet-wet and freeze and die. Beware of Barbeques, because they shoot fire and burn you alive. Let your father rest in peace. ____________ But most of all, you have to remember to beware of cats! They will eat you alive and play with your corpse.

PalomaI know I know. Cats. the scary creatures that kill mice. Big deal. I have never even seen a cat. I doubt that that will ever change. Anyways; I gotta go mom. ByeStill having an attitude

RachelThe young mouse left her home to explore the small farm where she now lives. Paloma starts walking around

Nicole Be safe! Tell me what you find! BEWARE OF CATS!!!! Waves her off, then looks concerned

Paloma What's this? What’s this?There’s bushes everywhereWhat's this?There’s sunlight in the air Whats thisI can’t believe my eyes I must be dreamingWake up girl this isn’t fairWhat’s this?Paloma starts singing her song

Leslie COCKA-DOODLE-DOO Interrupts

Paloma Ahh!!!What’s this? What’s this? There’s something very wrongWhat’s this?You make a different song.What’s this?Your legs are lined with Hairy scary ugly scalesYou must be off the rails You don’t even have a tail!What is this! What is this! You have a peculiar callThat scares me to the boneYou make me want to run and crawlAnd hide inside my homeI must be going nowYour look scared me away I can’t think of a reason howI could actually stay; BYEE

LeslieWait, I am not a monster! Don’t run away! Come back!

RachelThe frightened mouse ran until she came across another strange animal singing to herself.

LiliaWell hello little friend, it’s so kind of you to wander over into my claws, I mean awe...I am in awe to see you. Where did you come from? I didn’t know there were any more little mice running around MY farm

PalomaOh, this is YOUR farm? You are so much nicer than that scary monster over there.

LiliaWhy don’t you come over here, don’t you have any time to spare?

RachelThe little mouse liked this furry creature. Her silk fur looked soft and friendly, and her smile was welcoming. The flick of her tail seemed to invite the young mouse over. Paloma and Lilia fake talk to each other

PalomaOh, I would love to join you, you are by far the coolest person I’ve ran into all day….

LeslieCACADOODLEDOOOOOOInterrupts again. Paloma runs away

LeslieHey you! Stop eating all the mice in this farm. You always torment them.

LiliaMe, eat a mouse, that’s ridonkulous! We were just having a snack... I mean ...chat.defensively

LeslieReally? You were having a "chat" because from my perspective it looks like you wanted to EAT her. You know what just leave, go away and never come back.Points off stage

LiliaNever come back? Oh honey, this is MY farm. I mean I’ll go but only because I’m done here. You can’t tell me what to do Bite at leslie

Rachel The cat went away for the day, as the young mouse ran home as fast as she could. She ran straight into her mother’s arms and began frantically telling her mom what happened.

`PalomaMom! You’ll never guess what happened!

Nicole What!? W-what happened?

PalomaI was out exploring some farm and I saw a scary monster with feathers and scales with a pointy beak that made a terrifying roar. But luckily I was rescued by this beautiful fluffy creature with a long tail and paws and whiskers and a beautiful toothy smile! But I ran home because I was scared of that roar the monster made just like you told me to do!Speaking really fast

NicoleOh honey. Calm down. It’s alright. I am glad you made it out alive. It sounds scary, but maybe for different reasons. You talked about a scary creature with scales and feathers? And a furry creature with a tale? Says calmly

PalomaYEAH totally, there was that huge scary thingAnd a nice fluffy one with a tail who wanted to be my friend

NicoleMy dear, may I tell you what I think really happened? The scary monster you speak of was a rooster. And the smiling furry one was the vicious cat. Do you remember what I told you about cats??? The rooster you speak of was so kind that it saved your life. And your friendly cat was tricking you into coming closer so she could have a mealMomma mouse comforts the little mouse and they both walk center stage.

For my Advanced theater class, we were tasked with finding a short play online. My team found the play "The cat and the mouse", and after we made our own script for the play, we were then given the assignment to make a parody of any song we wanted and make it into the same play. Us, being the Halloween lovers that we are, picked The Nightmare before Christmas "What's this"Here is the parody we made, and performing it in class was great too! I love my Drama class!

What’s this? What’s this? There’s something very wrongWhat’s this?You make a different song.What’s this?Your legs are lined with Hairy scary ugly scalesYou must be off the rails You don’t even have a tail!What is this! What is this!

You have a peculiar callThat scares me to the boneYou make me want to run and crawlAnd hide inside my home

I must be going nowYour look scared me away I can’t think of a reason howI could actually stay

During this project, I basically made sure that at all times I knew what my end game was. Whether it was 2 weeks before the project was due, or a day before my project was due, I knew that I needed to have a fully drawn, children’s book done by my due date. When I was writing the book, or drawing it,, or even making it, I knew what my end project was going to be. My process isn’t the same as a lot of other people because many people had their own original steps and objectives. What sets me apart is that I had a goal that I knew I needed to get to in a certain amount of time and I was determined to make it. Once I had my goal in mind, the hard part was actually completing all of the objectives it took to get to my goal; my goal being completing the children's book. My objectives ranged from coloring the first page to writing the story line. Everything counted toward my end goal. The most challenging part of this was probably writing the actually book since it took so many drafts to finally complete it. My partner and I must have re-written the story line over 10 times before finally settling on the ending. But lucky for me, all the challenges I faced helped me in the long run. I learned how to do things I didn’t think I could ever do. First off, I learned how to draw, something I’ve never actually gotten the knack of and I consider myself an artist now when before I wouldn’t even think about that kind of title. Even before making the book I learned a lot about immigration with somehow made it easier for me to learn how to draw that because I could relate to it. Something about Cuban Immigration and Operation Peter Pan really taught me how to be an artist. I think the thing that I am most proud of after this assignment is finally learning how to draw and widen my range of talents. ​

During Tech lends a hand, I went Connolly Ranch and I helped out with planting, turning over soil, weeding and a lot of other things. After this, Ms. Gottfried told us to play "Black out Poetry" where we went through the newspaper and took out key words that described what we did during Tech Lends a Hand. Although my poem doesn't make much sense, I do think it describes my experience.;Top team... We can talent Napa's talentSpent time goalsWe started the game off really slowOur advantage teammate blasted the goal out of position with controlled pace.

A. What do you anticipate will be a challenge you will face in the future regarding your personal wellness? How will you apply what you've learned this year in Biofitness to overcome that challenge? Cite credible sources. When it comes to my personal wellness I think that I do pretty well with working out and staying fit. A problem that I have been having is that when I don't work out I feel a lot more anxiety towards my homework and my classes altogether. So, I have found this year because of biofitness I have less anxiety and I am happier to work out now whereas before if you told me we were going for a run I would have thrown my pizza at you. This website here talks about how working out keeps your mind in check. B. Write about a wellness challenge you faced this year. How did you apply your learning to overcome that challenge? Cite credible sources. This year, it was hard for me to take initiative of my own health. I used to rely on my parents to make doctor's appointments and take care of me. Now, when my knee is in pain I know that I need to go to the doctor. I am capable of taking initiative and showing my parents that I can take care of myself and succeed. Although I still need them to feed me every once in awhile, I now know that I can continue through my adolescence taking care of my health so that later on in life I know how to take care of my wellness. In this blog post by a mom, she explains why shes helping her kids by not doing everything for them. C. Which aspect of wellness is the one you feel is most important? Explain your logic and reasoning with credible sources. I think that emotional wellness is the most important because of how your mood can change everything about you and everyone around you. If you are depressed, your friends notice it. But if you ice your knee every night before bed, how are your friends going to notice that? This website here talks more about how your emotional health in the most important of all of your wellness. ​

Recently I watched the movie 13 Days and my immediate reaction to it was “My God this is a really good movie.” Although that was my immediate reaction, after the movie I noticed some small tweaks that weren't entirely factual. I could go on and on about what wasn't right about it like the author of From Ordinary Joe to hero of Cuban crisis wrote about, but I wanted to talk about how you can ignore and even avoid these so that you don’t get suckered into Hollywood's fantasies.

Read up on whatever historical film you are watching.

When it came to me watching 13 days, I already knew most of the facts to the story. Even though I knew most of the facts. I’m definitely no expert. I’m just a sophomore in high school learning about the Cold War, I don't have all of the tiny little details about who said what quote and how many people died during the Cold War… but I do know that war didn't actually take place, which is why it was called the “Cold War”. I also know that neither the United states nor Russia wanted war, so each side was waiting on the other to fire a missile first. Taking the time to learn the facts is beneficial because then you are not going to be completely confused during the movie. Historical movies have a way of doing that to you.

2. You don’t have to know everything A Lot of people believe that they have to know everything about the topic to understand the movie. It’s ok if you don’t understand every second of the film. You're not going to get in trouble if you don’t get why the Russian secretary is crying in the Russian embassy. At first, I didn’t understand it. Actually, let me be honest, I didn’t understand a lot of it, but I asked questions and I ended up understanding most of the film.

3. Don't write a paper based on a film that isn't a documentary If you are watching a historical film because you want to write a paper about the film or just about the historical content in general, don't base all of the historical content that you are writing about entirely on a film. Even if it is a documentary, getting more information for outside sources is always a good idea. This is essential if you a writing a paper because there needs to be some backstory and added information so you aren’t just taking from one source. Also, you get extra points if your essay has multiple sources.

And that right there are all of the tips and tricks that you need in order to 1) not get suckered into Hollywood's fantasies and 2) make sure that you know what you need to know before and after a historical movie. I wish you the best of luck on your movie watching madness!